The Ghost of You
by Timeloopy
Summary: Boone survives his accident with everything intact but his memory. Unfortunately, Shannon remembers all to well. AU This story was written in response to Boonefan's request - the story and plot are hers - I just played with the words.
1. Chapter 1

_Boone_

It was quiet and dark in the cave. He wondered if he was dead – should be dead – he remembered the fall but blessedly didn't remember hitting the ground. The pain was everywhere – he should be dead. There was a sound in the dark – soft footsteps, a crackling fire, water running. Where was he anyway?

"You're awake," a man's voice – he could make out the outline of a face as his eyes adjusted to the dark. So he wasn't blind.

"Yeah. It hurts," he managed to choke out. It even hurt to breathe. What had he done to himself? With sudden alarm he realized he didn't know. He remembered falling – falling – and the pain – but that was all.

The man was poking and prodding at his feet now.

"Ah," he moaned. That hurt too.

"Good sign actually," the man said. "I was worried you'd broken your back but I guess you got lucky."

A baby cried in the darkness. A baby. Where the hell was he?

The man seemed to sense something.

"What's your name?"

He opened his mouth to speak and the words didn't come. He didn't know. His head throbbed and he panicked. He tried to sit up but the man was pressing his shoulders and holding him down.

"There's someone who wants to see you. Your. . .uhm. . .well, I don't know what she is to you exactly. I'm Jack."

Jack. It sounded right. That name with the face hanging over him. Jack. And Jack was going to get somebody for him. He'd sounded funny when he said that.

And then there was a blonde sitting beside him. He could tell she'd been crying. Crying over him maybe? But she didn't touch him. Didn't take his hand or touch his cheek. Her name was as much a mystery to him as his own. But he felt something for her. And he wished she'd take his hand amid the pain.

Blackness.

When he came to again the blonde was still there although she sat a few feet away playing cards with another guy – it was light now. And if the blonde was worried about him it didn't show in her face. She was laughing at something the guy was saying – the redneck – big and rugged – just her type.

But where did that come from? If he didn't remember her name, how would he know her type. He tried to sit up and the pain intensified. He must have moaned because the blonde turned toward him.

"Get Jack," she said to the handsome stranger who rose and left. He supposed the man was going for Jack. Jack must be a doctor or something.

"What happened?" he said shakily.

The blonde just looked at him. Still not touching him. Tears threatening at the corners of her eyes.

"What happened to me? Who are you?" he said.

"I'm . . .nobody – I'm useless," the blonde said and she turned and fled from the cave. At least he thought it was a cave.

And for some reason her words made him feel worse than the pain did. He wasn't sure who she was, but he knew her words were all wrong. She wasn't nobody to him – she was everybody. If he could just remember why.

***

_Flashback-Shannon_

This was his room. They'd given her the number at the front desk and she'd thought about calling first but she couldn't get up the nerve. So, she'd come here. He was going to love this – love that she'd gotten a dose of her own medicine. So, here she was. At his room. Ready to ask for his help and take whatever he was about to dish out.

She took a deep breath and she knocked.


	2. Chapter 2

Flashback - Shannon

Shannon lay on her back in the dark trying to gather together some shred of her dignity. She'd come here willing to do anything to get Boone on her side – anything to keep Boone from telling his mother what had happened in Australia. She supposed she'd succeeded though the sick feeling in the pit of her stomach didn't seem to match up with winning.

She couldn't look at him – not yet. But she could hear him breathing hard from the exertion of a few moments before. She lay still not wanting to draw his attention again – not wanting him to look this way.

That hadn't seemed like the Boone she knew. Boone took care of her and looked after her. Boone treated her like she was made of fine china or porcelain. Boone was in love with her. He had been for years though they'd both been careful not to mention it until tonight. If she was honest, she'd always counted on his feelings for her.

Her wrist ached and she longed to rub it but he'd notice and she wouldn't give him the satisfaction – not just yet. She'd been shocked when he'd gripped her wrist so tightly that she cried out. She wasn't sure what she'd expected when she made her proposition but she hadn't expected him to twist her arm behind her back and kiss her with such force that she could feel her lips bruising at his insistence.

He'd only pinned her arm for a moment but she could feel the imprint of his hand on her wrist when he took it away. She hadn't asked him to stop. This was the forbidden kiss she'd been waiting for since she first saw him. They'd been too old to see each other as siblings by the time their parents met and somehow the bond that formed between them had never had a truly familial feeling to it. She'd pushed her schoolgirl crush on him aside as a defense against his disdain for her through her high school years and then suddenly they'd switched places.

She still remembered when he'd come home from college that one summer and realized she was all grown up. His eyes had traveled appreciatively up and down her legs as she watched in the mirror and realized that she held the power now. He wanted something he couldn't have and a part of her she didn't like very much began almost immediately to use that desire against him.

As she lay in the dark, she still couldn't believe that he'd taken her up on her invitation to do with her as he liked. She couldn't believe that gentle Boone had turned something she'd thought would be gentle and giving - or at worst boring and forgettable – into something so rough and indifferent.

The indifference as he took her there in the hotel room hurt more than any physical action he'd taken. She'd felt like nobody to him. And now she still had to face him come morning.

***

Flashback - Boone

Regret washed over Boone as he rolled away from Shannon in the night. What the hell had he been thinking? No matter that she'd taunted him into it – he'd treated her like he'd never treated a woman before. He'd wanted to make her feel cheap and as he heard an almost imperceptible sob in the darkness, he realized he'd succeeded. The sick feeling in the pit of his stomach didn't feel like winning though.

In the early morning when she'd carefully pulled her mask into place and spoke to him in a voice that was at least ten degree subzero, he took it. Because he knew he deserved it. Boone had no idea how to make this right – he wasn't even sure it was possible.

***

Island –

They told him his name was Boone and that he'd been in a plane crash. When asked if that was how he got amnesia, the doctor – Jack – had given him an odd smile.

"No, you were in another crashed plane that fell off a cliff. That's how you hit your head."

"So, I was in a plane crash and then I was in another plane crash."

"That's about the size of it."

"Uh-huh."

"I think you're in good enough shape to walk down to the beach if you want," Jack said.

"Which way's the beach?"

A petite blonde holding an infant held out her hand and smiled at him.

"I'll show you. Amnesia sucks, huh?" she said.

"You've had amnesia?" he asked.

"Claire," she said as he took her hand and stood up. "My name's Claire and I still have a touch of amnesia if you get right down to it. So, maybe between us we can remember where we were going."

"Lead the way," Boone said following Claire out of the cave and trying not to wonder what happened to the other blonde he'd seen when he first awoke. She hadn't shown up again.


End file.
